Memento of father recovered after break-in at Paxton home

Friday

Mar 29, 2013 at 6:00 AMMar 29, 2013 at 6:24 AM

By Scott J. Croteau TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

When Mary C. Miller took the witness stand Wednesday in Central District Court to testify against the man who broke into her Paxton home last year, she said she felt like her father was there with her.

As Assistant District Attorney Timothy A. Westerman asked her to identify a bag of recovered property during the trial of Nicholas J. Laflamme, Mrs. Miller saw a button with her father’s picture on it.

She immediately knew it was the button she wore in a firefighter memorial walk a year after her father — former Worcester Fire Lt. John McNamara — had died. Seeing the button made the high school teacher’s eyes well-up, and she was overcome by emotion.

“That pin is probably a $2 pin, but for me it was priceless,” Mrs. Miller said in an interview Thursday. “To me it was almost like my father was there saying I helped to recover this stuff for you and all these people.”

Mr. Laflamme, 24, of 8 Fletcher Drive, Auburn, was found guilty by a jury Wednesday on firearms, receiving stolen property and accessory charges. He was sentenced to a total of four years in jail with three years of probation to follow. A restitution hearing will also take place.

The co-conspirator in the case, Dennis L. Hageman, 28, of 35 Main St., Spencer, was sentenced to probation, ending Aug. 9, 2016, on similar charges. The sentence was given last year.

Auburn police were called to Old Common Road on April 13, 2012, after homeowners discovered several homes had been broken into, Auburn Police Detective Sergeant Jeffrey A. Lourie said. Several items, including a gun, were stolen.

Investigators later found the gun. It had been sold to a known drug dealer in Worcester and recovered last year after Worcester police responded to a nightclub disturbance, Sgt. Lourie said.

Police traced a license plate that a witness provided in the break-in at the Auburn home and went to Mr. Laflamme’s home. Items found in a search linked Mr. Laflamme to break-ins in Sutton, Millbury, Paxton, New Braintree and Grafton, police said. All of the break-ins occurred in April 2012.

Auburn Detective Daniel Lamoreaux and Officers Stephanie Segur, John MacLean and James Ljunggren were involved in the investigation.

“Detective Lamoreaux was compassionate and really went out of his way to help all of the victims,” Mrs. Miller said.

Break-ins rarely make big headlines, but they are not victimless crimes. Victims are left feeling violated, scared in their own homes and wondering if their stolen items will ever be recovered.

Some of the items stolen in the case were recovered at a jewelry kiosk in the Auburn Mall.

Mrs. Miller, 53, said an alarm system has since been put into her home. She talked to other victims testifying in the case. They talked about how items — even ones that may seem insignificant to others — were never found and with that the memories those items hold were gone.

Mrs. Miller had the button of her father tucked into a jewelry box when it was stolen. She had forgotten about it until it showed up as part of the recovered items.

“I was very emotional because I felt like my father was there helping me out,” she said about her testimony.